This from Hieronymus Bosch...
Reporting exclusively for Eye from today's exciting SWR launch at Waterloo!
So the Top Brass turn up at WAT for the launch. Shiny livery, cleaned etc etc. Then..the signalling goes at Eastleigh, points failures at WAT, crews become displaced and chaos starts.
The top brass disappear.
It makes no difference what the livery is and what colour it is if the management of incidents is poor. That is what this railway suffers from.
So, Crew displacement made to work by a roster of split working. The removal of TCS's to be replaced by robot ORM's who are lower paid and cover larger areas. The loss of experienced controllers with the move to the ROC at BSK from the raft at Waterloo. Questions over the adequate training of staff to replace the control. Lack of investment in infrastructure. The signalling loss at EH was caused by a COMs link being eaten by rodents. SnT shortages mean basic maintenance is being deferred.
At the end of the day asset management is key. Both human and bits of rail.
It is no good building shiny new overpriced track and stations if Incident Management is dire. That means building redundancy into the system.
As that costs money, it will not occur.
